


Community, Season 3, Episode 4, Remedial Chaos Theory

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s03e04 Remedial Chaos Theory, Meta, Nonfiction, Season/Series 03, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:00:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27320869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for the episode and the rest of the series. Complete.
Kudos: 2





	Community, Season 3, Episode 4, Remedial Chaos Theory

Being a big Troy/Abed shipper, I will be referring to them as quasi-boyfriends throughout the review.

Open to Annie and Britta outside of Troy and Abed’s apartment. They knock, and opening the door, decked out in matching attire, the quasi-boyfriends greet, “Troy and Abed’s new apartment!”

Abed’s attempt at a smile is disturbing.

Inside, the quasi-boyfriends have a wall dedicated to photos of the two of them, and they reveal they’ve read a book on how to be the perfect party hosts. Said book, however, was written in the forties, and one of the things black Troy mentions it advised was, “Avoid touchy topics like the Negro problem.”

Popping up, Shirley reveals she commandeered the cooking area hours ago.

Producing a brick, Annie gently scolds them for leaving it to prop open the downstairs door since anyone could just come up to their apartment, and when the buzzer goes off, Abed inquires, “Like one of our guests?”

Taking the brick, Troy leaves to let the others in, and Abed is more focused on a scale model he built than giving an actual tour of the place.

Shirley reveals she’s made pizza that, frankly, doesn’t sound that good, and Abed is firm, “We ordered real pizza.”

The others come up, and Jeff picks at Troy for supposedly not being adult enough. Troy tries to laugh this off.

Pierce is still sore over Troy moving out of Pierce’s mansion, but he does give a genuine compliment about the place being nice. There’s a line about Pierce removing Troy from his portraits, and don’t worry, Pierce. You’ll soon have an awesome little brother whose picture you’ll tape to your official family portrait.

Jeff is ready to bounce, and I’m not sure why he even showed up in the first place if he didn’t plan on staying. However, the other plans he thought he had turned out to be a trick by Abed to get him to keep his calender opened.

The quasi-boyfriend declare they offer something even better, and, “Don’t say Charades,” Jeff warns.

“Yahtzee!”

Opening a bottle of alcohol, Jeff inquires, “Is Charades off the table?”

After the theme song, everyone is sitting, and Annie is scared by the buzzer going off.

This part of someone needing to let the pizza deliverer in has never made sense. Troy took the brick back down, and there’s no mention or wondering of someone else removing it.

Everyone puts their hand on their nose at the same time, and Jeff comes up with an idea: He’ll roll the die, and starting from his left with one, “Your number comes up, you go.”

So, being the non-numbers, not-terribly-familiar-with-dice person I am, I actually tried to figure out what number would result in Jeff himself going. My trying to figure this out, however, did not result in me reading about dice. Though, even if I knew there were six sides, I probably still wouldn’t have realised what Jeff was doing.

“Just so you know, Jeff, you are now creating six different timelines.”

“Of course, I am, Abed.”

Each new timeline will start with the hands-on-noses and contain the above conversation.

Annie is picked. She leaves, Pierce claims he and an actress one had sex in an aeroplane toilet, and Britta starts to sing. When Jeff shuts her down, she has Abed show her to the bathroom.

Troy discovers Annie has a gun in her purse, and Pierce is dismissive. “That’s not a gun, that’s a girl’s pea-shooter.”

When Troy asks Jeff what they’re going to do, Jeff stands up to get a drink. In the process, he hits his head on the ceiling fan. I do hope Joel McHale wasn’t actually hurt by this at any point, but I do laugh every time this happens to Jeff.

Shirley comes over with pies, and she’s visibly hurt when no one shows any interest.

Over at the bathroom, noting the weird smell, Abed asks what Britta did in their, and her point about that not being a dignified question is followed by her hilariously undignified reaction to the pizza arriving.

Abed wonders what happened in the other timelines.

“Abed, there are no other timelines,” Jeff insists.

Cue the next timeline.

Shirley is chosen, and she asks the others not to let her pies burn. Once she’s gone, Jeff makes it clear no one is to eat said pies.

It would have been nice if this had been explored more. In my opinion, Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism is where they truly became friends, but I do think Shirley and Jeff cared for one another before then. If Jeff didn’t care, he would have just let the others enjoy Shirley’s constant snacks and occasionally enjoyed them himself. He is genuinely worried about her wrapping her identity in baking; he’s just going about this worry in one of the worst ways possible.

Annie wants to try talking to Shirley, but Jeff says they tried that, and since it didn’t work, they’ll be going with his mean, counter-intuitive plan.

Abed and Britta head to the bathroom, and Pierce mentions his bathroom conquest before giving Troy a house-warming present. It’s a troll doll that Troy hated when living in the mansion.

Said troll borders the line between creepy and cute.

Scolding Pierce, Annie asks what Jeff is going to do about this, and again with the head hit. Concerned, Annie wants to look it over.

There’s a short scene by the bathroom, and Shirley comes in with the pizza.

Then, she has a nervous breakdown (Jeff claims he intentionally didn’t say “bakedown”) over her pies being burnt and Jeff being blunt about her needing to stop making baking her identity.

Next timeline.

Pierce is chosen, and he makes his sexual encounter claim before going down. Shirley goes to check on her pies, Abed and Britta head to the bathroom, and Jeff picks at Troy when Annie is genuinely complimentary over his new apartment and how mature he’s becoming.

Also, adorably, the quasi-boyfriends have bunk-beds.

Troy storms off, and Abed has to stop his scale model from losing a ball.

Over to the bathroom, inside, Britta is smoking a joint. Troy knocks, and when she says she’s washing her hands, he takes this to mean it’s safe to come in. She tries to deny what she was doing, but producing a candy cigarette that she initially assumes is a joint, he complains about Jeff constantly casting him in a childish light.

Head hit. Annie takes Jeff to the kitchen, and Jeff is rude in refusing Shirley’s pies.

In the bathroom, Britta and Troy have a nice scene. I think the show could have explored their relationship in season 4 a little more, but I actually liked them becoming friends, having a romantic relationship, and then, deciding they were better as friends. Gillian Jacobs and Donald Glover have great chemistry.

Enjoying her own candy cigarette, Britta says Jeff is jealous of Troy being so emotionally open, and she correctly says Troy can be emotionally open and still be a man.

There’s a funny moment where she notices a bowl of olives by the toilet.

“It’s a fancy party, Britta.”

Glover’s delivery is so awesome here.

Then, Troy sincerely says, “You’re really cool, Britta.”

Outside the bathroom, Pierce comes back up, and Annie is pressing something cold against Jeff’s head. Britta and Troy come out, and sharing a happy moment, they don’t care what happened in the other timelines.

Also, it looks like the bunk-beds might have matching sheets.

Reset.

Britta is chosen.

Shirley goes to check on her pies when Pierce starts with his story. Troy starts to declare them all his best friends, and Annie takes Jeff to the bathroom when the collision happens.

Troy wonders if he needs to refill the toilet olives, but Abed has already checked on them. They agree they’ll stay up all night talking in their bunk-beds. Aw.

In the bathroom, Jeff is worried about Annie living in such a bad neighbourhood. She reminds him not to treat her like a kid, and he points out that, sometimes, adults need protecting, too.

“I can’t help but worry about you,” he admits. “You’re important to me.”

They almost kiss, but Pierce terrorising Troy with the troll stops them.

It’s made even more clear that Pierce is hurt by Troy moving out.

Cue Britta breaking the awkward by appearing with her new fiancé, Toby the pizza deliveryman. Who she just met literally less than ten minutes ago.

When Abed wonders about the other the timelines, Toby’s response is, “Wait. There are other timelines?”

Yep, and speaking of...

It’s Troy, and with this being the darkest timeline, I take this as evidence it’s Abed imagining all this.

Abed’s scale model starts acting up, Pierce starts his story, and after Shirley, Britta, and Abed are gone, Pierce brings up Jeff’s father. Head hit, and Annie trips on the ball from the model. She falls onto a table, and alcohol on it hits the floor

Pierce drops his wrapped gift on her purse, her gun goes off, and Pierce is shot. Coming out with a lit joint, Britta drops it on the alcohol-soaked floor, thus, starting a fire.

Troy arrives back, and I’ve been seeing a gif of this scene since long before I ever watched Community.

Next timeline.

Abed is chosen, and he needs money from the others. Pierce blurts out he had sex with the actress, andoff to the kitchen Shirley goes. Unlike Abed, Troy simply tells Britta where the bathroom is. Annie leads Jeff to the kitchen after the collision.

There’s a brief scene of Britta smoking, and then, Shirley is excited when Britta is all for the delicious-smelling pies.

Pierce tries to give Troy the troll only to change his mind when Troy sincerely thanks him for letting Troy live with him but saying, like Pierce once did, he needs to make his own way now.

Over with Shirley and Britta, Shirley explains, sometimes, she feels like her baking is the only thing she’s good for in the group, and stoned Britta lets it slip 1. None of them are supposed to eat Shirley’s pies, and 2. She (Britta) is completely stoned.

Troy, meanwhile, is not happy about Pierce trying to renege on giving him a house-warming present.

In the kitchen, Jeff and Britta share a kiss only for her to have sense of déjà vu. Then, she ruins the mood by saying Jeff worrying about her reminded her of her dad.

Everyone is angry/uncomfortable when oblivious Abed comes in, and he likes this timeline due to finding some spare change in the hallway.

Reset only for Abed to catch the die. Giving a nice speech about friendship, he reveals Jeff cheated. Everyone laughs when Jeff hits his head this time. Despite their being an opening, Pierce doesn’t tell his aeroplane story, and without Jeff there to stop her from singing, everyone ends up dancing when Britta sings. Abed suggests Annie should move in with him and Troy, and Pierce is eventually shown chucking the present out the window. Dangerous, but the sentiment itself is sweet.

Coming back, Jeff’s fondly exasperated at the scene.

Shirley’s pies might still burn, but she’ll handle it much better. They’d all rather have her dancing with them than in the kitchen, and she’ll know that.

Later, in the study room, the darkest timeline is in play. Britta has a streak of blue in her hair, Shirley is a drunk, Jeff lost an arm, Troy has a damaged larynx, Pierce is dead, and Annie’s in a mental institution.

Abed’s made paper goatees, and he suggests they replace their counterparts in the timeline where he caught the die. No one but Troy is on-board.

Speaking of the quasi-boyfriends, back in the apartment, they’re watching TV together in their jammies (aw!) when Abed briefly twigs to Evil Abed’s existence. However, dismissing it, he goes back to enjoying time with his soulmate.

Fin.


End file.
